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arXiv:2509.10229 · Entropy

Bohmian Chaos and Entanglement in a Two-Qubit System

Athanasios C. Tzemos, G. Contopoulos, Foivos Zanias

Published Aug 6, 2025• 2 citations
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Abstract

We study in detail the critical points of Bohmian flow, both in the inertial frame of reference (Y-points) and in the frames centered at the moving nodal points of the guiding wavefunction (X-points), and analyze their role in the onset of chaos in a system of two entangled qubits. We find the distances between these critical points and a moving Bohmian particle at varying levels of entanglement, with particular emphasis on the times at which chaos arises. Then, we find why some trajectories are ordered, without any chaos. Finally, we examine numerically how the Lyapunov Characteristic Number (LCN) depends on the degree of quantum entanglement. Our results indicate that increasing entanglement reduces the convergence time of the finite-time LCN of the chaotic trajectories toward its final positive value.

DOI
10.3390/e27080832

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We study in detail the critical points of Bohmian flow, both in the inertial frame of reference (Y-points) and in the frames centered at the moving nodal points of the guiding wavefunction (X-points), and analyze their role in the onset of chaos in a system of two entangled qubits. We find the distances between these critical points and a moving Bohmian particle at varying levels of entanglement, with particular emphasis on the times at which chaos arises. Then, we find why some trajectories are ordered, without any chaos. Finally, we examine numerically how the Lyapunov Characteristic Number (LCN) depends on the degree of quantum entanglement. Our results indicate that increasing entanglement reduces the convergence time of the finite-time LCN of the chaotic trajectories toward its final positive value.
Abstract We study in detail the onset of chaos and the probability measures formed by individual Bohmian trajectories in entangled states of two-qubit systems for various degrees of entanglement. The qubit systems consist of coherent states of 1-d harmonic oscillators with irrational frequencies. In weakly entangled states chaos is manifested through the sudden jumps of the Bohmian trajectories between successive Lissajous-like figures. These jumps are succesfully interpreted by the ‘nodal point-X-point complex’ mechanism. In strongly entangled states, the chaotic form of the Bohmian trajectories is manifested after a short time. We then study the mixing properties of ensembles of Bohmian trajectories with initial conditions satisfying Born’s rule. The trajectory points are initially distributed in two sets S 1 and S 2 with disjoint supports but they exhibit, over the course of time, abrupt mixing whenever they encounter the nodal points of the wavefunction. Then a substantial fraction of trajectory points is exchanged between S 1 and S 2 , without violating Born’s rule. Finally, we provide strong numerical indications that, in this system, the main effect of the entanglement is the establishment of ergodicity in the individual Bohmian trajectories as t → ∞ : different initial conditions result to the same limiting distribution of trajectory points.
We study order, chaos and ergodicity in the Bohmian trajectories of a 2D quantum harmonic oscillator. We first present all the possible types (chaotic, ordered) of Bohmian trajectories in wavefunctions made of superpositions of two and three energy eigenstates of the oscillator. There is no chaos in the case of two terms and in some cases of three terms. Then, we show the different geometries of nodal points in bipartite Bohmian systems of entangled qubits. Finally, we study multinodal wavefunctions and find that a large number of nodal points does not always imply the dominance of chaos. We show that, in some cases, the Born distribution is dominated by ordered trajectories, something that has a significant impact on the accessibility of Born’s rule P=|Ψ|2 by initial distributions of Bohmian particles with P0≠|Ψ0|2.
This is a short review of the theory of chaos in Bohmian quantum mechanics based on our series of works in this field. Our first result is the development of a generic theoretical mechanism responsible for the generation of chaos in an arbitrary Bohmian system (in 2 and 3 dimensions). This mechanism allows us to explore the effect of chaos on Bohmian trajectories and study in detail (both analytically and numerically) the different kinds of Bohmian trajectories where, in general, chaos and order coexist. Finally, we explore the effect of quantum entanglement on the evolution of the Bohmian trajectories and study chaos and ergodicity in qubit systems which are of great theoretical and practical interest. We find that the chaotic trajectories are also ergodic, i. e., they give the same final distribution of their points after a long time regardless of their initial conditions. In the case of strong entanglement most trajectories are chaotic and ergodic and an arbitrary initial distribution of particles will tend to Born’s rule over the course of time. On the other hand, in the case of weak entanglement the distribution of Born’s rule is dominated by ordered trajectories and consequently an arbitrary initial configuration of particles will not tend, in general, to Born’s rule unless it is initially satisfied. Our results shed light on a fundamental problem in Bohmian mechanics, namely, whether there is a dynamical approximation of Born’s rule by an arbitrary initial distribution of Bohmian particles.
In the present work we study the critical points of the Bohmian quantum flow, namely the nodal point and its associated X-point, which are responsible for the generation of chaos in Bohmian trajectories. In the first part of the paper we find an analytical equation for the position of the X-point in a planar 2-d Bohmian system with a single nodal point and test its accuracy numerically. We then calculate its asymptotic curves and comment on the way they affect the evolution of the nearby Bohmian trajectories. In the second part we present our first results on the position of the X-point and its asymptotic curves in a 3d partially integrable system, where the Bohmian trajectories evolve on spherical surfaces.
We study in detail the trajectories, ordered and chaotic, of two entangled Bohmian qubits when their initial preparation satisfies (or not) Born's rule for various amounts of quantum entanglement. For any non zero value of entanglement ordered and chaotic trajectories coexist and the proportion of ordered trajectories increases with the decrease of the entanglement. In the extreme cases of zero and maximum entanglement we have only ordered and chaotic trajectories correspondingly. The chaotic trajectories of this model are ergodic, for any given value of entanglement, namely the limiting distribution of their points does not depend on their initial conditions. Consequently it is the ratio between ordered and chaotic trajectories which is responsible for the dynamical establishment (or not) of Born's rule.
The general theory of motion in the vicinity of a moving quantum nodal point (vortex) is studied in the framework of the de Broglie-Bohm trajectory method of quantum mechanics. Using an adiabatic approximation, we find that near any nodal point of an arbitrary wave function psi there is an unstable point (called the X point) in a frame of reference moving with the nodal point. The local phase portrait forms always a characteristic pattern called the "nodal-point- X -point complex." We find general formulas for this complex as well as necessary and sufficient conditions of validity of the adiabatic approximation. We demonstrate that chaos emerges from the consecutive scattering events of the orbits with nodal-point- X -point complexes. The scattering events are of two types (called type I and type II). A theoretical model is constructed yielding the local value of the Lyapunov characteristic numbers in scattering events of both types. The local Lyapunov characteristic number scales as an inverse power of the speed of the nodal point in the rest frame, implying that it scales proportionally to the size of the nodal-point- X -point complex. It is also an inverse power of the distance of a trajectory from the X point's stable manifold far from the complex. This distance plays the role of an effective "impact parameter." The results of detailed numerical experiments with different wave functions, possessing one, two, or three moving nodal points, are reported. Examples are given of regular and chaotic trajectories, and the statistics of the Lyapunov characteristic numbers of the orbits are found and compared to the number of encounter events of each orbit with the nodal-point- X -point complexes. The numerical results are in agreement with the theory, and various phenomena appearing at first as counterintuitive find a straightforward explanation.